School Travel Plan: Moving Beyond the Bus

Explanation: A School Travel Plan is a good tool for addressing the unique needs of everyone arriving and departing at a school. While a Safe Routes to School policy lays out a general plan for active transportation in a district as a whole, a School Travel Plan provides a detailed plan for a specific school, describing the school and its students’ travel needs. The School Travel Plan can begin with an initial assessment, identifying potential barriers, setting goals, and ultimately designing a plan of action that revolves around the “Five E’s” of Safe Routes to School. This policy provision encourages each school to engage in individualized review of the current and future travel needs of students and staff, with the input and support of a diverse advisory school team.

Option 1: District requires that each school adopt a School Travel Plan that addresses all modes of active transportation and related safety, access, and parking issues. The plans shall also include goals, strategies, and objectives for increasing active transportation among students and staff, including those with disabilities. At a minimum, the School Travel Plan shall contain a map identifying the school, streets surrounding the school, existing traffic controls, established pedestrian and bicycle routes, pedestrian crossings, school and municipal bus routes and bus stops, and any other infrastructure or plans that facilitate routes which separate active commuters from motor vehicles, with the goal of minimizing risk of injury and maximizing the safety and convenience of active transportation.

Rating:

2

Option 2: District requires that each school adopt a School Travel Plan that addresses all modes of active transportation and related safety, access, and parking issues. The plans shall also include goals, strategies, and objectives for increasing active transportation among students and staff, including those with disabilities. At a minimum, the School Travel Plan shall contain a map identifying the school, streets surrounding the school, existing traffic controls, established pedestrian and bicycle routes, pedestrian crossings, school and municipal bus routes and bus stops, and any other infrastructure or plans that will help create separate routes for active commuters from motor vehicles, with the goal of minimizing risk of injury and maximizing safety and convenience for active transportation.

School Travel Plans shall be updated with input from various stakeholders, including when appropriate: school personnel, parents, students, concerned community members, and representatives from relevant government agencies such as public safety, transportation, public health, public works, engineering, and planning.

Each page of the Policy Builder consists of an explanation of one policy element, followed by one or more potential choices for wording of that element. Read the explanation, then read each of the element choices.

If you don't want to include this element in your policy at all, click on "Do not include this element in my policy."

If you do want to include this element, click the wording you'd like to use for that element. In general, the first option on the page is the least stringent, and each subsequent options becomes more stringent. After each is a "Score," represented by 1 to 3 stars. The more stars, the more stringent the wording, and the stronger that element will be in your policy.

At the bottom of the page you'll see "Previous" and "Next" buttons which you can use to navigate through the twenty-six different elements in the policy.

In the left sidebar you'll see a list of policy elements, organized into Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. In addition to using Previous and Next, you may jump directly to any section.

When you've addressed all the elements, click the "Finish" link, or simply click the "Next" button on the last element in the list. You'll receive a score based on the policy choices you made, as well as some suggestions as to how to improve that score and make your policy stronger. You can follow those links, or use the links in the left sidebar to change any of your choices.

When you're satisfied with all your choices, return to the "Finish" page and click the "Download My Policy" button to save a copy of your policy to your computer. You can open and further edit this file in Microsoft Word or any other word processor.

Each policy is eligible for a given number of stars, depending upon how much the policy contributes to creating a safe and encouraging atmosphere for children to walk and bicycle to school. Some policies are only eligible for one star, others for two stars, and others for three stars. For some policies, selecting a stronger option may provide additional stars.

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